Death of a Thousand Cuts-- Advice and Commentary requested

[oaktoon]

For all the times when a tournament demise is directly linked to one big hand-- either misplayed or badbeated-- I've found there are plenty of other occasons when a series of hands spells or at least sets up one's doom.

Such was the case for me yesterday in Vegas. Please read the accounts of these four hands-- I'll be as brief as possible and tell me what you think.

116 players in a $60 + $40 rebuy tournament. All the action described below occurred in middle stages of tournament when Hero was one of a handful of chip leaders.

Hand One (the river bet)

Blinds 200-400

Hero raises 1200 with Ad5d from early position; one caller.

Flop Jd-x-x; Check-Check

Turn Qd. Hero bets 1000, caller reraises double. Needless to say, with 9 diamonds and the possibility that a paired ace might win the hand, hero calls. (Turns out caller had been slowplaying a set of jacks, though he never showed the hand, but from his commentary on river decision)

River the 5th diamond. Hero realizes that a smallish bet-- 1000-1500-- represents almost half of Caller's stack-- so why not go all-in and hope Caller will put Hero on bluff. Caller folds.

Hand Two (reaction to a flush draw)

Blinds still 200-400

Hero has approximately 13K in chips; opponent has about 10.5K-- they are two chip leaders at table.

Hero is BB and checks with 8-4. Opponent in middle position is only other caller.

Flop A-5c-4c.

Hero bets out 1200; Opponent raises to 3700.

Hero's play? I determine opponent is most likely on flush draw. Have not seen him limp in with an ace before. A call is the worst option-- given my hand, he's liable to have at least one and possibly two overcards-- i won't really know if he's hit or not. Plus the 9 clubs for the flush.

Choice is Push or Fold. Hero Folds, not wanting to commit 80% of his chips to the a) possibility that the call is made on the flush draw and the odds are close to 50-50 given the overcards, or b) I've misread the hand and the ace has paired.

Opponent admits afterward he was on flush draw.

Hand Three (to continue or not continue)

Blinds now 300-600. Hero raises to 2000 in 7 handed table UTG with A-10. Opponent (same one as the flush draw example-- we've moved tables) direectly to left says "I don't really want to call, but I guess I have to".

Hero puts him on A-J, or possibly A-Q or K-Q. Does not consider other real possibility-- a medium pair such as 88, 99, or 1010. Flop comes K blank, blank-- Hero must lead and checks-- scared of situation (the initial raise is about 20% of total chip stack). To continue commits a lot of chips to this hand. Turn brings a Q, and now Hero is pretty committed to the river, where an ace (perhaps) or a J will save the day. neither comes-- hand is checked down, and opponent tunrs over.... 99.

Continuation bet almost certainly would have driven him from hand, but if wrong, it would have crippled Hero.

Hand Four (dueces wild??)

Three shortstacks go in in front of Hero in BB with 22. To call is to commite 40% of chips to hand. Hero determines that the odds of one of those have three having dominating pair are too great to call. (Odds are as follows-- against 3 overcard hands, hero is 35% to win and obviously should call. Against one pair and two overcard hands it drops down to 16%)

Turns out no one has pair and to add insult to injury duece comes up on flop and hero would have busted three players.

How many of these hands were misplayed, in your opinion?

I think the worst decision i made was not to push against the flush draw. I think the others were all defensible even though they didnt work out.